Lismore Non TAB minor changes

Participants are advised that there have been some minor changes to the Lismore Non TAB meetings.

Lismore Non-TAB meetings will now have draw undertaken on Wednesdays prior to meeting, with nominations closing at 9am with GRNSW. This change has been made following feedback from participants.

Additionally, the meeting scheduled for April 8 has been transferred to April 1, 2017.

The dates for the trial of six-dog field races commenced on March 4, 2017. Eight race meetings will initially take place at Lismore as part of the trial, with Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) exploring the option of continuing the trial into the 2017/18 racing season if it is required.

The full schedule is as follows:

Saturday

04-Mar-17

Saturday

18-Mar-17

Saturday

01-Apr-17

Saturday

29-Apr-17

Saturday

13-May-17

Saturday

27-May-17

Saturday

10-Jun-17

Saturday

24-Jun-17

The objective of the six-dog trial is to collect robust data that will assist in assessing the impact six dog racing has on reducing injury rates.

One of the key recommendations of the Joint Working Group – the body established in 2015 to assist with the development of the NSW greyhound racing industry’s strategic approach – was for the industry to consider six dog fields as a way of enabling younger or less competitive greyhounds to obtain a race start, gain increased race experience, and to reduce the risk of injury.

Trialling of six dog fields is also one of the initial recommendations by the University of Technology of Sydney, which was commissioned by GRNSW in April 2016 to undertake a vital research piece to identify optimal greyhound race track design for canine safety. The UTS team will incorporate the analysis of the six dog trial and its impact on injuries into their ongoing research work. Race vision of each meeting will be captured and analysed as well.

In addition, the six-dog race meetings will replace the gap in Non-TAB racing in the Northern Rivers region, which was created by the closure of the Tweed Heads club in December.

Each six-dog race meeting at Lismore will be conducted as a Non-TAB meeting with prizemoney to be based on the Non-TAB minimum levels. A $20 unplaced payment will also be paid to greyhounds that finish between fourth and sixth in each race.

There will be no trials at the end of the six-dog race meetings.

Greyhounds will be drawn in boxes one, two, four, five, seven and eight. Boxes three and six will remain vacant. Reserves will also be drawn for each race, where nominations allow.

It should be noted that as this Lismore Non TAB meeting is a Category D race meet, participants will not be able to rollover from this meeting to a regular Grafton or Lismore TAB meeting that are graded later that week.

A nomination for these TAB meetings will need to be a separate nomination for either Grafton or Lismore and submitted after the six-dog race meeting for Lismore is drawn.

GRNSW would like to thank GBOTA NSW for agreeing to take part in the six-dog trial and assisting the NSW greyhound racing industry in developing its animal welfare policies around racing.